City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2024-25 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 4. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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For three years, the Villanova women have had a spotlight shining intently on the Main Line. 

From 2021-23, it was focused on Maddy Siegrist, the First Team All-American who became the Big East’s all-time leading scorer, man or woman, after averaging an astounding 29.2 ppg her senior year. Then it shifted over for one year on Lucy Olsen, who went from being Siegrist’s No. 2 option to the nation’s third-leading scorer, averaging 23.3 ppg last season.

The 2024-25 ‘Cats will look quite different from their predecessors, and that star power which has been leading the way the last few years has given way to a group that’s likely to be much more balanced this winter.

Olsen is now at Iowa, the biggest part of the Hawkeyes’ plan to replace Caitlin Clark, finishing ninth on Villanova’s scoring list (1,504 points). Christina Dalce, who had started 70 games at center the last two years, averaging 8.3 ppg and 9.4 rpg as a junior, will finish her career out at Maryland. Bella Runyan (7.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg) graduated; Zanai Jones (6.7 ppg) transferred to SMU.

Of the top five scorers from last year, only sophomore Maddie Webber (7.7 ppg) is back in the fold. Two other who were in the main part of the rotation also return: junior wing Kaitlyn Orihel, who averaged 6.0 ppg last year; and grad student Maddie Burke (4.0 ppg), who started 20 games a year ago, averaging 4.0 ppg, also returns for her final season of college hoops. 

The Wildcats were picked sixth in the Big East in the preseason poll after finishing fourth last year with a 22-13 (11-7 Big East) record. Head coach Denise Dillon knows the outside expectations won’t be as high, but she’s determined not to let that noise reach her players. 

“I think it’s more just [establishing] the understanding, making sure our players know that our standards are high,” Dillon said. “Our expectations, as are theirs; individually their expectations are high.”

To help keep the program rolling along, Dillon and her staff brought in some quality reinforcements via the transfer portal: 

• Ryanne Allen, a 6-foot-1 junior guard from Vanderbilt, should be a familiar name, as the Archbishop Wood product is reuniting with Orihel, her former Vikings teammate. After averaging 6.4 ppg and 2.5 rpg as a freshman at Vandy, (21.6 mpg), Allen dropped further back in the rotation, averaging 2.3 ppg as a sophomore in only 6.7 mpg.

• Lara Edmanson, a 6-0 graduate student forward, comes in from Santa Clara, where she averaged 7.3 ppg and 4.1 rpg for her career, while shooting 34.1% from the arc. Her best season came as a junior (10.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg); she averaged 7.7 ppg and 3.7 rpg as a senior; Dillon said “the five-out style of play with her works beautifully.”

• Jaliyah Green, a 5-10 senior guard, started 68 of 84 appearances over three years at Southwest Missouri State. An athletic slasher, she averaged 12.9 ppg and 4.5 rpg as a junior, though her shooting percentage (33.2%) was a steep drop from her sophomore year (41.8%); Dillon said she will utilize Green “at the ‘1’ through the ‘4.’”

• Bronagh Power-Cassidy, a 5-10 graduate student forward, was a four-year starter at Holy Cross. A two-time All-Patriot League selection, Power-Cassidy has college averages of 13.0 ppg and 4.0 rpg and is a 37.8% shooter from deep, coming off a career-best year: 16.8 ppg and 4.9 rpg, on .451/.400/.775 shooting splits.

Dillon was high on all four, but Power-Cassidy drew the most praise.

“Her maturity, her understanding of the game is great, and being able to articulate it and explain it, and what needs to happen with her players on the floor, it’s basically an extension of our staff as a coach,” the fourth-year Wildcats coach said on a Wednesday phone call. “And her competitiveness, she’s a winner, she’s won at all levels that she’s played.”

One other “addition” to the rotation is redshirt junior Denae Carter. The 6-0 forward out of St. Basil Academy arrived on the Main Line last year after two seasons at Mississippi State, where she averaged 5.0 ppg and 6.1 rpg in 47 games (10 starts). She suffered a torn ACL in the 2023-24 preseason and missed the whole season, but Dillon said you can “see her every day [getting] more comfortable,” noting a huge change from their first preseason scrimmage to their second.

The Villanova frontcourt will be quite different without Dalce, the 6-2 defensive specialist, who averaged 2.3 bpg each of the last two seasons. Without her, Dillon will rely on a number of undersized combo forwards in the frontcourt, including Carter, Power-Cassidy and Edmanson. 

“We keep talking about that, like defensively, making sure we’re learning to play aggressively without fouling,” Dillon said, “and the rebounding piece is certainly an area that [has to come from] everyone, instead of relying on one or two.”

Dillon said freshman Jasmine Bascoe, a 5-7 guard from Milton (Ontario), will start at point guard from Game One. Bascoe, who’s played for Canada’s Junior National Team at multiple events, averaged 14.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg and 4.7 apg at the U18 Women’s Americas Championship in Colombia this April. Dillon called the guard “special,” saying she “doesn’t play like a freshman.” 

Sophomore Brynn McCurry, a 6-1 wing who averaged 2.7 ppg and 1.8 rpg, will miss the upcoming season with a torn ACL. Allen, who has a leg injury of her own, will not be ready at the beginning of the season, though Dillon sounded confident that the junior wing will be back before Big East play begins.

“There’s a couple injuries that affect us,” Dillon said. “Really what we’re delivering to the team is, everyone being ready. There’s not going to be some set-in-stone guarantee of who’s starting [...] we have, I feel, an eight-nine player rotation if we’re healthy, and then just trying to find that group that is the best to start you off on the right foot.”

Villanova’s preseason will run a little longer than most, as the Wildcats will have to wait until Nov. 10 to open their season, when Wake Forest comes to town, six days after most of the rest of the Big 5 tips off. Things ramp up quickly from that point, with a trip to Princeton three days later; Big 5 play opens Nov. 20 at home against Penn, with the inaugural Big 5 Classic on Friday, Nov. 6 at Villanova. 

Big East play opens Sat., Dec. 21 with a home game against St. John’s.

“I want to see an impact early from our group,” Dillon said. “Collectively they get it, they see what we can be, working towards what we can be. It is a conversation as to what other people might think, it’s internally what we feel and what we think and working towards that.”